Publication
This article will be written for a magazine that appeals to people from the age 18 to 24. From research it shows that this target audience is one of the leading groups who own an e-reader. Therefore it will be published in Quest magazine. This magazine always contains several questions which people want to be answered. This is a fine additional article to their usual content. Target audience
Men and woman, between the age of 18-24 who are interested in reading books. This target audience is part of a generation that experiences the transformation from paper books into e-readers, the modern way of reading books. Therefore they will be the most interested in the change and which impact it will gave on their future. Most people from this age are students. Who will experience or have experienced the heavy load of carrying paper books around. Therefore they will be interested in buying an e-reader. On the other side there is a possibility that they are emotionally attached to paper books, in comparison to the newest generation. Content and approach
The purpose of this article is to inform people about the uprising popularity of e-readers. With explains an understanding of the changes it will cause in the future. The information will be given in a partly recognisable storyline supported by interviews. It is a 1 or 2 page long article, containing not more than 1000 words. The deadline is the 17th of January.
Genre
This article is news-pegged, inspired by a current topic of the normal life; buying an e-reader or not? Inspired by this topic, thinking of the changes it will generate in the future is an interesting angle which is not much discussed. Purpose of text and voice of tone
The purpose of this article is to inform people about the uprising popularity of e-readers. And about the changes it will cause in the future. The information will be given in a partly entertaining and recognisable storyline.
Interviewees
Anne-Claire Tonis
Law Student at Utrecht University
06-38445530
Arnold Elbers
Studies for employment specialist in job environment
06-31366703
Are paper books headed for extinction?
The e-reader is one of the fastest growing consumer-favourite devices. Research showed that the net sales will double every year. But what will happen if this rate continues to grow? Are the digitalized libraries going to replace the dusty, material ones?
Pro e-reader
‘Rapidly looking around through the hasty crowd of Utrecht Central during peak hour, I get a quick glance of number 7, the platform I have to be at in two minutes. Pushing and cursing to random strangers as I finally arrive at the escalators. Gladly people lean to the right as I run down and jump in the train just a moment before the doors shut. I am lucky this time, a student in her mid-twenties just puts her bag on the ground and there it is, a place to sit during peak hour. While I look around me I was mostly surrounded by middle aged, full-time workers who are on their way home after a hard day of work. Surprisingly half of them hold a rectangle shaped
electronic device in their hands. An e-reader, I realise. While I get my hardcover book containing over 300 pages out of my bag, I felt old. Why do they not read old-fashioned paper books anymore? Anne-Claire Tonis, Law Student at Utrecht University is not the only one who notices the changing reading style of people. Bookstats, who examines U.S. publishers' annual sales and units, also noticed the eBooks net sales doubled over 2011 (Bole, PRESSRELEASE: Bookstats Annual Survey, Size and Scope, Released., 2012). The uprising popularity is caused by the constant low prices of e-readers and eBooks, supported by the great functionality of the e-readers. ‘I have been using my Sony Reader for about half a year now. I love it. I can carry it with me all the time and download as much books as I want.’ Arnold Elbers, who just recently entered in the new world of eBooks and e-readers, approves the new reading style. ‘Normally I tried to read before bedtime. But most of the time I was so tired I directly fall asleep. The poor book disappeared beneath the dust on my night stand.’ Before owning an e-reader Elbers red significantly less books. Which is not uncommon, the average reader of e-books says she has read 24 books in the past 12 months, compared with an average of 15 books by a non-e-book consumer. (Lee Rainie, The Rise of E-Reading, 2012) Old-fashioned book lovers
Even though everywhere the adapting to the digitalization of printed books is slowly recognisable, there is another angle which needs to be considered, the consumers believing. According to the second years Law Student Anne-Claire Tonis, the extinction of books is unspeakable ‘Sure, taking this popularity of an e-reader in consideration, paper books now have a lot of competition. But I will always prefer print books. When I have to write a paper I have every tiny bit of research printed out to read it thoroughly and highlight the passages needed for my paper. Not to mention my dry eyes and hazy thoughts I get from spending an entire day looking at my pc screen. Maybe I am old fashioned, but I could never imagine the extinction of books.’
This said we take a closer look at the culture of books. The history of books goes way back. Most ancient cultures have preserve and disseminated knowledge for thousands of years. (Bohn, 2012) As this may seem stated a bit
dramatic, it still is the truth. If we are to replace this powerful and durable technology, we need to come up with a throughout proper solution. Not to mention the advantages of printed books which are mostly forgotten lately. Printed books are one of the remaining forms of storing mass knowledge which does not require technology. Do we really want to make everything depend on the use of electronic devices?
Taking all of this into consideration, the rising trend of e-readers appears inevitable. Most readers are convinced of the digitalised take-over of the reading market. It seems like the old-fashioned libraries sigh to their defeat and the volumes of pages will be replaced by one singular simplified screen of an e-reader. The children of the future never need to carry the heavy burden on their back during high school. However, it looks like people do not see the advantages of printed books anymore. You almost never hear someone name the beautiful nature of its hardcover book. Maybe it all became too normal. Perhaps the invention of print is not being appreciated enough anymore in our modern society. We might need change to appreciate the old again.
-Anne Sophie Vrolijk
Bibliography
Bohn, D. (2012, January 20). Sorry Ibooks, Paper Books Still Win On Specs. Retrieved from The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/20/2720158/sorry-ibooks-paper-books-still-win-on-specs Bole, A. (2012, July 18th). PRESSRELEASE: Bookstats Annual Survey Capturing Size and Scope Released. Retrieved from BISG: Book Industry Study Group: http://www.bisg.org/news-5-774-press-releasebookstats-annual-survey-capturing-size-and-scope-released.php Conservative, L. (2011, August 30). Will Books Become A Thing Of The Past? Retrieved from Lonely Conservative: http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/08/will-books-become-a-thing-of-the-past/ Lee Rainie, K. Z. (2012, April 4th). The Rise of E-reading. Retrieved from The Book Summary: http://thebooksummary.com
Process Report
When I first hearded about this assignment I panicked. I had to find a question which I wanted answered. And I needed it fast. All of the sudden it came to me. I am a big fan of reading fiction. I love my hardcover books with their fusty smell. Was it possible that books are headed for extinction?
First, I started researching the rising of e-readers, since they are the competition for my beloved books. I found that the percentage of people who own an e-reader was lower than I expected. But my sources did tell me that this percentage had doubled over the past years. For me this was a nice fact to hold on to. I could go and speculate about the future, which is something I very much like to do. So from there on, I was happy with my subject and satisfied with my sources.
The hardest thing of this assignment for me was making the brief and starting to write. Ofcourse, when you start writing, you need to know to who and how you want to approach your target. That was hard for me. Normally, I would just start writing about something and continue from there on. For this assignment I couldn’t do this. Then my article would have been terrible.
So I sat down, thought for a moment, discussed with my roommates and started writing the brief. This was a hard thing to do, and I postponed it all the time. But I did it and I get why it is so important. It makes the article way more clear.
If I could do something different, I would start on it sooner. I completely underestimated how much time it needs to write a proper article. I started a few days before the deadline, because of this I stressfully had to write the article, which I think is too bad. I would rather like to had the time for writing of the article. But I’m happy with how it turned out!
